WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The Department of Agriculture is defending the use of ammonium-treated beef, dubbed "pink slime" by detractors, in meals destined for schoolchildren as part of the national school lunch program.

The Internet news source The Daily reported this week that 7 million pounds (3.2 million kg) of the product -- beef trimmings treated partly with ammonium hydroxide to fight contamination -- would appear in school lunches this spring.

"All USDA ground beef purchases must meet the highest standards for food safety," the agency said in a statement.

You will obey me while I lead you
And eat the garbage that I feed you
Until the day that we don’t need you
Don’t go for help...no one will heed you
Your mind is totally controlled
It has been stuffed into my mold
And you will do as you are told
Until the rights to you are sold

Frank Zappa - I’m the Slime

2
posted on 03/11/2012 2:13:51 PM PDT
by dfwgator
(Don't wake up in a roadside ditch. Get rid of Romney.)

Neal Boortz had this on his show last week..I could barely stomach listening...

but a peanut butter and jelly or cheese sandwich and apple packed by Mom is illegal. Good God!

I remember once my Mom packed a Liederkranze cheese sandwich for me for school lunch..wow! did I ever get teased.Liederkranz smells like Limburger chees.ha.
Somehow, I survied this traumatic childhood event!

The big-government/big-corporate criminal complex works like this; big-corporate lobbies big-government legislators to pass laws to force people to buy their products, and big-corporate funnels money to their campaigns from the profits.

That's all there is to it.

8
posted on 03/11/2012 2:19:53 PM PDT
by E. Pluribus Unum
(Government is the religion of the sociopaths.)

The U.S. Government defends the Use of Pink slime in schools!Then maybe they should be the first to consume it on a daily basis.Instead of going about and buying all of the prime cuts that the first muslim consumes.

10
posted on 03/11/2012 2:21:27 PM PDT
by puppypusher
(The World is going to the dogs.)

I can go one better. My mother used to pack schmaltz sandwiches. Schmaltz is rendered chicken fat. We spread it on Wonder Bread and it was beyond delicious. For a real treat I got chopped chicken liver....yum! By the way, my cholesterol is perfect.

The pink slime isn’t all that different than mechanically separated meat, which has been a staple of meat processing in this country since the 1950s. Anyone’s who’s ever eaten a hot dog or a slice of lunchmeat has probably eaten it.

Probably the reason the slime’s going into school burgers is because of the food service racket going on with our schools. Institutional-grade (i.e. schools and prisons) food is cheap and gets the job done as far dotting the nutritional I’s and crossing the T’s regulations. Taste might be another matter, but the food service companies can meet “lean meat” requirements with the stuff without the cost of using higher quality beef muscle. Better options surely exist, but the SEIU probably would oppose them.

Me, I’d brown bag it or skip out to one of the local places at lunch time (used to leave campus all the time when I was a senior in HS. Got busted for it once, but the teach was cool and let me skate. He didn’t like the school’s food either, Ha!)

Congress shall pass no law nor support or advocate any regulation, to which legislators themselves are not subject.

I could support such a law. It would probably have to be an amendment. I’d support such a law or amendment being retroactive, thereby making Congress subject to healthcare, social security and insider trading laws.

Oh lets just post what it is right here...from your link ..and thank you...

WHAT IS PINK SLIME:

Pink slime is an additive in about 70% of ground beef. Most likely if you have had a fast food burger then you have eaten it.

Pink slime is made from the cheapest, least desirable parts of beef; fat and other trimmings. These are the parts that the butchers cut from the meat,... fall on the floor, swept up ...and usually pay to have them taken away.... These scraps usually used in DOG FOOD!

Now Beef Products Inc. have created a way to make these scraps safe for human consumption..... The process is deceptively simple but the safety is questionable.

First the scraps are put in a centrifuge and spun really fast to separate the little bits of meat from the fat. Keep in mind that these are the scraps off the floor that have pathogens like E. coli 0157 and antibiotic-resistant salmonella. (Sounds like something you would like to eat?)

After the meat is removed, it is combined with AMMONIA to kill these bacteria. Officials at the United States Department of Agriculture endorsed the companys ammonia treatment, and have said it destroys E. coli to an undetectable level. Sure, maybe it is undetectable but it is still there which poses the possibility of food poisoning.

In 2009 school officials temporarily banned their hamburger makers from using meat from a Beef Products facility in Kansas because of salmonella  the third suspension in three years. But the facility still remained approved by the U.S.D.A.

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